Boomboxes to Matchbooks

I grew up after the age of records, but well before the innovation that digital media has brought to the music industry.  I listened to cassette tapes for my most of my childhood.  Playing my tapes on my Boombox, I was the epitome of cool.  I would listen patiently for my favorite song to come on the radio and eagerly hit the record button to capture it on tape.  Into my later teens, I got my first portable CD player.  I would stick it into the pocket of my oversized jeans and listen to the same disc over and over again.  It wasn’t very convenient to carry your CD collection with you when walking around town.  My son will be able to fit more songs than he can even imagine onto a music player the size of a matchbook.  It won’t even matter what songs he has downloaded anyway.  He will simply be able to pull up the song over his smartphone whenever he wants to hear it.  In the big scheme of things, you might ask why it matters.  Why even give any thought to this subject?  Maybe it doesn’t matter, but maybe it is just a small look into a much bigger generational change.  We are currently raising a generation that no longer needs to be patient or selective on something as simple as music.  They are growing up to expect that whatever song they want to listen to will be available whenever they want to hear it. That attitude of impatience, the expectation of instant gratification, the ability to have it all will shape our children in ways that we can’t even foresee.  What else will my son expect now?

Recording Life

When I was growing up, we didn’t stop to record our lives.  We just lived them.  As children, we would groan if our parents pulled us away from our fun to stop and pose for a picture.  As a teenager, it was a rare treat when one of my friends would have a camera.  We would excitedly take pictures and wait for the next week to look at the prints.  Digital media has changed all that.  People now take more pictures than ever.  A couple years ago I read an article that stated that every two minutes, we take more pictures than in all of the 1800s.  My son is growing up in a world where people, not only record their lives, they share them with the world.  Nothing is done or said with out a post or a tweet.  People are more excited about how many likes their picture gets than they are about what they are actually doing.  It is hard to disconnect.  I am guilty of it myself.  You look around and everyone’s face is buried in a phone.  They forget to open their eyes and just enjoy life.  It is nice to stay connected.  I enjoy living in a world where I can easily watch my niece and nephews grow up even though they live half way across the country.  It is good to be able to share your accomplishments with the world, but the sharing doesn’t stop there.  Embarrassing moments become YouTube sensations.  Everything is recorded, good or bad.  And moments are missed.   They are recorded in photos and videos to share with the world, but they are missed.  People are so busy taking pictures of the roses that they forget to stop and smell them.  I don’t want my son to forget to live life because he is too busy recording it.

Where Will Clark Kent Change His Clothes?

Where will Clark Kent change clothes?  How will he transform into Superman?  Phone booths have become a bit of a novelty these days.  My son may never get to see one outside of pictures or videos.  He won’t endure the struggle of finding a phone, making sure he has enough spare change, and hoping the person he is trying to reach is home.  I remember using the payphone outside the public pool to see if I could stay longer or in the hallway of my high school to tell my mom that I would be late.  I didn’t have my first cell phone until after I was married, and even then it wasn’t until I was making long distance night drives alone.  I decided I should have one just in case there was an emergency.  If payphones are no longer an option, then I will have to get my son a cellphone.  He will grow up in a world where he is never disconnected.  He will be able to pick up his phone at anytime and make a call and people will almost always be able answer.  It won’t matter if they are home or not.  He won’t even have to call.  He will probably just send a text.  Long gone are the days of passing folded paper notes under desks and behind your back.  I don’t know what age I will get my son his own phone, but he will have one long before I did and long before I am ready for it.

Walking to School

When I was in the first grade, I would walk to school with my sister.  The next year she moved to middle school, and I started walking to school myself.  It was five blocks, and my parents never thought anything about it.  I never considered that it was unsafe or anything to warrant concern.  My son is still a few years from going to school, but when he does he will go to the same grade school I went to.  We live eight blocks away.  One day as we drove by the school, I mentioned to my husband that soon our son would be walking or riding his bike to school.  “No!” he said immediately.  He said it was too far and too dangerous to let him walk to school by himself.   I was surprised by his reaction.  Will my son never know the joy of a leisurely walk back from school, kicking leaves and hopping over cracks in the sidewalk?  Is the world he is growing up in so dangerous that he can’t walk a mere eight blocks alone?  I don’t know that I agree with my husband about this, but I am sad that my son is growing up in a world where we have to have this discussion.  I don’t want him to miss out on the simple pleasures of life because we are too afraid to let him experience it. 

Google It

A few months ago, my son started saying “Google it”.  My husband says it all the time.  Any time anyone asks him a question that is his response.  My son is growing up in a new era.  Some people call it an era of information, but in ways it seems like an era that lacks information.  With information now available to most of us at all times via our smartphones, there is little reason to actually retain information.  There is no reason to memorize formulas, facts, geography, or trivia.  Not only do you not need to retain this information, you no longer need to maintain connections that have this information.  When I was growing up, I remember that my dad had an address book full of friends and acquaintances.  There were certain people he would call when he encountered certain problems.  For instance, if he had a car questions, then he would call Greg.  If he had a gardening question, then he would call Randy.  It was like this for a variety of things.  There were a dozen people that he maintained this type of relationship with, casual connections to whom he could reach out to if he had a question about something specific.  In turn, these people would reach out to him if they had a question about his area of expertise, HVAC.  My son won’t need to have these types of connections.  He won’t need to call someone to ask them directions or for a tip on his lawn.  He will simply pull up his phone and find the answer in a matter of moments.  He will have access to an infinite amount of information, but he will lose the need to remember it.  He will be able to find out almost anything he wants to know without human interaction.  I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  I only know that it is different than how I grew up.